I humbly sat down for most of my school’s prom. Sure there was the occasional shoulder shimmy here and there. That awkward two-step sway with my friends (you know the one). But like many debilitatingly anxious 16-year-olds, I would have rather died than be caught busting it down in front of my teachers.
But not Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega). Wednesday finds the dangerous pit of a high school dance floor and sees a window of opportunity. She spots the prying eyes of her teachers and sees audiences stuck in nosebleed seats begging for a look. She’s Halloween’s it girl, but she’s a dancer first and a goth aficionado second.
If you’ve seen the fourth episode of Netflix’s Wednesday, you probably know the scene I’m referencing. The almost three-minute dance routine towards the episode’s end, sees Wednesday absolutely dominating her school’s dancefloor and turning it into a stage for her own one-woman show.
While her choreography is a magnetic, applause-worthy spectacle, it’s also a treasure chest of Easter eggs and ’80s tributes. Thanks to Ortega’s personal choreography process that relied on troves of 1980s dance footage and research to build Wednesday’s routine.
The ’80s were a prime for Halloween bops and goth goodness.
While some remember the totally tubular decade for Cyndi Lauper and Tina Turner, others remember the ’80s for its booming subculture scene where goths became trendsetters and misfits made music mayhem. A lot of Wednesday’s routine involved Ortega pulling inspiration from archival footage of goths dancing in clubs and the makers behind the music to their Friday nights. Ortega’s list of goth gods includes Siouxsie Sioux, Lene Lovich, and Denis Lavant, with Bob Fosse’s « Rich Man’s Frug » adding a sprinkle of swinging ’60s to her routine.
The ’80s were also an era where Halloween tracks made it into the club and Wednesday’s dance number is arguably a giant homage to the latter. From “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell to “Ghostbusters” by Ray Parker Jr., to most famously, “Thriller” by Michael Jackson, the ’80s gave us what now constitutes the majority of Spotify’s Halloween playlist, and no decade since has been able to replicate its Halloween-becomes-pop zeitgeist.
Wednesday’s dance number is a rich tribute to an ’80s club scene that was as synth as it was spooky.
Performed at the school’s Rave’N, Wednesday’s dance number is a rich tribute to an ’80s club scene that was as synth as it was spooky. Her routine devilishly bursts with flavored homages for the decade’s Halloween finest, marrying “Thriller” with Dracula, and serving all kinds of camp, goth realness. Like Jackson’s zombie groove, we see Wednesday doing a similar hands up, claws out side-to-side. A human-turned zombie neck tilt. A shoulder shimmy paired with swinging arms going up and down. And an overall seamless embodiment of everything staple to an ’80s Halloween music video.
Ortega’s choreography is also a performance on multiple levels, as she simultaneously acts out the lyrics to the scene’s backtrack “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps. The song, another ’80s hit about a teenager turning into a monster (fitting for the show’s mystery plot), lets Wednesday embody the creature, being called to the dancefloor one synth beat at a time, dipping in and out of frame, and popping up where you least expect her. The ’80s of it all is so good, that I’m convinced if you changed the scene’s song into any of the decade’s Halloween hits, it’d all flow perfectly well.
All our Wednesdays are great dancers.
Alongside its ’80s tribute, Wednesday’s dance number beams with a fun, blink and you’ll miss it Easter egg. The split second dance move sees Wednesday replicating another famous dance routine given to us by our first onscreen Wednesday, Lisa Loring, from the ’60s TV series The Addams Family Show. You may know it from the GIFs and memes, but way back when in a 1966 episode, Wednesday taught Lurch (Ted Cassidy) how to dance and the rest was Friday night GIF history.
The episode, “Lurch’s Grand Romance,” features Wednesday (Loring) teaching Lurch “The Drew.” A swinging ’60s jive that’s adorably endearing. “You don’t want her to think you’re square do ya?” Wednesday asks while shuffling around. Ortega brilliantly includes The Drew in a touching homage — rewatch the prom scene and see if you can catch her quick Easter egg, it’s all very worth it.
Another famous Wednesday, Christina Ricci (who returns to Netflix’s Wednesday in a brilliant role as herbology teacher Ms. Thornhill), was also an absolute dancing queen in the 1991 film, The Addams Family, where she dramatically waltzes with her cousin, Lumpy Addams, at Uncle Fester’s celebratory ball. Ricci hilariously keeps a straight face while whizzing around, despite being on the brink of catapulting into the air at any moment. And while Ortega may not have included a Wednesday waltz in her routine, the legacy of Ricci’s lavish dancing lives on. With all our Wednesdays, past and present, being queens of the night and painting every dancefloor with their name.
The Addams are Latin and love to dance.
Wednesday’s dance scene emboldens her with a certain joie de vivre, and smartly characterizes her as a kid who grew up watching parents as iconic as Gomez and Morticia Addams (Luis Guzmán and Catherine Zeta-Jones). Wednesday is the first to directly address the Addams’ Latin heritage and Wednesday’s routine subtly nods to her roots.
Amidst the ’80s goodness, Wednesday briefly salsa dances, doing a recognizable salsa snap in a touching tribute to her culture and the many nights she probably spent watching her parents erupt into dance. If you’ve seen any previous Addams Family works, you’ll know that Gomez and Morticia never stray away from an opportunity to waltz, music or not, with Gomez’s “cara mia” lingering in the air. Wednesday’s routine maintains that same fiery decadence, and infuses her dancing with a passion for performance that she got from her mama. She’s Gomez and Morticia’s kid through and through, proudly boasting her heritage and family’s love for both the macabre and a good dance.
While Wednesday is a cornucopia of so many hidden gems, the show’s take on a modern Wednesday Addams really shines through in her prom’s dance scene. In all past iterations of the Addams Family, Wednesday’s always been a kid with quick quips and monotonous one-liners, but Netflix’s Wednesday is the first time we get to see her as a teenager with her own passions and sense of self. Her electric dancing speaks to a new Wednesday that unravels intimate layers of characterization. We can now totally imagine Wednesday watching the “Thriller” music video alone in her room, or (begrudgingly) dancing to Anegla Aguilar “La Llorona” with her parents. I’ve always felt that an Addams house party goes hard, and Wednesday’s shameless dance routine has me begging to be on their guest list.
